Around the World...the Food Market Way

For your enjoyment: a few photos of food markets that inspire me from around the world.

Sketch Journal Page

May our abundance be shared more equally with all.  

Local food banks, children backpack programs are a great way for all to share. 

Texture Tuesday: a Favorite Movie

Adding textures to photos is proving to be fun, creative and a wee bit time consuming. Please tell me I will speed up with practice!

This week's challenge was to choose a favorite MOVIE. 

This was easy to do with photos, but I wanted to take it a step further and use PAINTINGS that represent the country where the movie takes place.

These are my two original paintings:

This painting is a collage. It is hanging with several other paintings representing children of other cultures, in a library in Maryland.

 
A  Balinese Dancer.

These are the two textures I used to get the final results.


Kim Klassen's texture

Natures  Beauty

This texture I created photographing a set of Balinese wooden batik stamps.

Here are the textured photos.
What do you think?

To find out what movie I am illustrating, jump on over to my photography blog


I quite like the texture on these two paintings. Would make great cards or prints.  Feel free to print for your OWN use.

Summer's Favorite Things: #1 Farmer Markets

I have been thinking about how much I love summer. Light weight clothing, sunshine (for us mixed with huge thunderstorms), BBQ's and S'mores, painting outside, surrounding field crops near our home, community swimming pool full of splashing kids, trees chock full of dense leaves and song birds, out door art shows, inviting white wicker chairs, open windows, and our wonderful gurgling porch fountain...

This little posting is the first in my list of favorite 
SUMMER ACTIVITIES.

Number 1

 FARMER'S MARKETS

Half a mile from our home is this colorful market. Just love to go there. I am not sure if it is the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables to choose from, or the very quaint, European market styled red umbrellas that cast a rosy glow over everything.

Behind the scenes of a market can be as interesting as the front. Those gigantic sunflowers make me smile....

My painterly interpretation of  summer's many markets...complete with little floral bouquets wrapped in lacy 
paper doilies. This is a large painting and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute creating it. Available on website or through RiverView Gallery in Maryland.

Four years ago I participated in an outdoor art show in western Maryland, up in the scenic high hill country. Near my booth was this amazing market with its blazing oranges, rusts, and greens. 
Amazon sized pumpkins, stacked corn stalks-squirrels darting in and out, from the awning hung bronzed dried corn, everything autumnal sprawled every which way. Yes the building was a beautiful shade of AUBERGINE!

Now if only one or two fruits seems recognizable, you are probably correct. 
Bali is the setting for this open air market.

No brightly colored umbrellas to protect sellers 
from the scorching sun.
Cement and dirt to put one's wares and produce on.
Rustic, hand-woven baskets filled with fruits 
and vegetables which to me considered EXOTIC.


So many colors. So many textures. So many tastes.
So much to experience.

I love the way this smiling woman's green head scarf matches the green of the plantains.

Patiently she will stay in this position from EARLY morning until afternoon. 

Aren't these baskets wonderful. Weaving baskets is part of the economy and provides a minimal wage. This woman is sorting very hot peppers, a key ingredient in delicious Balinese food. 

Always my favorite, the fragrant, brilliant colors and textures of cut blossoms. 
Many of these flowers are used to make DAILY offerings to the GODS.
Others are used in cooking and adornment.

Along the side of a winding narrow road we saw this dilapidated  wagon. This is a typical
"market" on wheels found in India. Corn is roasted right on the spot, providing a tasty snack or dinner for a passer by.

One does not need to go half way round the world to enjoy an open air market. But it surely is fun and informative. These women are very proud of their fruit and vegetables; just like the energetic 80 years young woman, selling her produce near our home.

The following are pages from my sketchbook inspired by markets around the world.

These paintings are in an 8 x 8 brown paper sketchbook. All are painted with gouache. 

EAT PRAY LOVE Part II

Seems like ages ago and I was all excited about the book Eat, Pray and Love and seeing the Julia Robert's movie with countryside scenes of Bali. Having spent time in Ubud, Bali at the time the movie was filmed, it seemed fun and appropriate to share photos. I started with concept of Pray.

It is early morning here in NC, still dark, and I am craving Peanut M&M's!!! For some reason my craving for something crunchy and chocolate brought back memories of EATING in Bali.

You are welcome to join me in a culinary extravaganza !!!

Where it starts is really in the fields, where the produce is grown, but just as fascinating are the street food vendors.  They spend very long days in cramped quarters chatting, smiling, probably gossiping the latest news, while hoping someone will purchase their produce.  It is its own little microcosm.  

Balinese food is teeming with FRAGRANCE, PRESENTATION AND DISTINCT FLAVOR.

In our family we all LOVE to take photos of food before it is consumed with great gusto! (Someone in our family should be a food photographer, it is that big a deal.)

Everything is delicious and beautifully presented. Children are loved and welcomed in the restaurants no matter how messy they are. That is a plus when traveling with Four Little Muggers.

But to move the story along, there was much more than eating Balinese food in a restaurant. When dining at Cafe Wayan we learned that they sponsored COOKING CLASSES out in the countryside no less.  Mateo, our son, and I signed up for a day of cooking authentic Balinese food in plein air...in other words, outdoor cooking. This was no American BBQ!! 

Mateo and I met at the cafe, were escorted to a large car and driven WAY OUT into the countryside...sparsely populated and a long enough drive, that I actually wondered if we were being kidnapped. That is the truth. I started to get rather suspicious.

Eventually we arrived at a beautiful complex of Balinese architecture, lotus ponds, fields of various crops....but NO people around. A gentleman dressed in white appeared and escorted us to an open air pavilion and left us there. I looked around at the beautiful landscape but could see NO ONE.  I have a great imagination and now and then it gets me in trouble.  I was really starting to freak out and conjured all sorts of scenarios in my head. And this paranoia I was passing on to Mateo.

Eventually the gentleman brought us beautiful drinks with flowers attached. Okay, my mind wandered again, is there a drug in this beautiful drink? You know like the brilliant red apple in Snow White? I decided to let Mateo drink and I would make sure I was "drinkless" in case I had to get us out!  (You didn't know this would be a mystery did you?)  SIGH SIGH SIGH, foolish, over wrought woman!!  Eventually we were escorted to an outdoor/plein air cooking kitchen equipped with everything beyond IMAGINATION, including two very pleasant, nice looking men.

Embarrassed by my lack of good judgment and paranoia, I finally relaxed and the day was splendid, magnificent, educational and we made two Balinese friends.  I will let the photos speak for our Balinese Culinary Adventure.  Maybe if you have an over active imagination like mine you will be able to smell the delicious aromas of fresh EVERYTHING!! and this includes all spices and condiments freshly ground in an old stone mortar.

The 'notorious' drink I pretended to drink!

Mateo should be a chef, he has the right pose don't you think? Believe me those knives were sharp!

All spices are hand ground. It was really hard work. Such wimps, Mateo and I  took turns grinding the spices into a paste.

Our delightful host and instructor....preparing everything to our own taste.

And that my dear friends is a photographic journey into Balinese cooking!
Now I am pretty sure my husband has HIDDEN a sack of Peanut M&M's somewhere...